Falcons refuse to play along with goading Panther

A day after Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy said his 3-9 team was better than the 11-1 Falcons, the Falcons reacted the way you’d pat a child on the top of the head when they say something cute.

“What else is he going to say at this point? They haven’t won that many games,” Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez said, via Michael Cunningham of the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “And you know they are going to compete. They always compete. That’s part of the fun. That’s why we play the game. We have got to go out there and see if we can prove him wrong.

Not escalating a silly war of words seemed to be the consensus.

“They’ve got to say something,” Falcons wideout Roddy White said with a grin. “They are fighting. They are holding on. They are in a different position than we are. They are trying to save the rest of their season and we are trying to prepare ourselves for this playoff run. Whatever you say to get yourself going or motivate yourself on Sunday, then you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.

“Those guys played well against us last time so I can’t really talk about him and what he said. They had seven sacks so you might not want to get those guys all riled up. Just let ‘em sleep.”